Many charities and organisations offer IT tutorials for people that struggling with using computers or for older people who feel they haven’t got to ‘grips’ with technology. And as computers and the internet are at the core of most businesses today, these courses can be hugely beneficial to candidates looking to secure a new job.

Whether you are a mature candidate that hasn’t had much experience with working with PCs or you are simply trying to improve on your existing knowledge, computer courses can be beneficial to your career for a number of reasons:

It Can Boost Your Key Skills

Learning computer skills can be beneficial to your CV writing as it’s another skill to add to your CV and experience. When reading a CV many employers navigate to the key skills section first. This is usually because the key skills section is concise and can tell an employer in a few sentences what skills that candidate has and it can allow an employer to visualise the skills that candidate can bring to their organisation. If an employer can only see a few, irrelevant skills then they are probably going to move on to the next candidate’s CV. But if they can see multiple key skills, including essential skills like ‘computer literate’, then they are more likely to read through your entire CV. And if a candidate reads through all of your CV your chances of being invited to a job interview will improve.

Increase Job Interview Confidence

The majority of employers looking to hire will be looking for candidates that possess strong IT skills. Most employers, no matter the role they are hiring for, will need candidates to complete tasks involving a computer. Whether it’s writing a Word document, using the company intranet or searching online for a product – using computers and the internet is usually vital to most employers. If you don’t possess these skills then it’s likely you’ll feel unqualified during a job interview but by training and adding these skills to your CV, you’ll automatically feel more confident in a job interview situation.

Career Progression

Adding new skills to your CV will help with your overall career progression opportunities. If you can gain computer skills outside of work and improve them while working in a job, then you’ll find it easier to apply for more senior roles in the future.

A search online will usually present plenty of training opportunities or you could speak to your local career advisor or recruiter to find out what courses they recommend. Working on your computer skills will not only make you a more confident candidate but it should open up more career opportunities too.